Ink of Blood

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I thought that this book was an interesting concept. I liked the atmosphere and how the historical aspect of the world seemed very authentic. While the writing out of the accents was sometimes hard to read, as it was difficult to figure out what the characters were saying, it was a good way of allowing me to hear the way they talked.

I did find the book a bit jarring and awkward to read. The blurb implied that the death of one character was connected to the downfall of another… but by the end of the book, I had no idea how they were apart from by a very thin strand of a thread.

The book was a very short one and I felt it could have been expanded upon a lot more. It didn’t seem like that much time had passed between Seth and Enoch being childhood friends and then being married with children themselves.

There was a lot of potential in this book in regards to the downward spiral Enoch took, but it was very difficult to understand how he got to that point. While the first bad actions made a little bit of sense, by the end of the book, the Enoch whose perspective was shown seemed entirely different to the Enoch other characters saw.

I think the book would have been easier to read with more development in the secondary characters. A lot of them were just mentioned once or twice, so when they had something bad happen to them, it was much harder to care.

While there were some interesting aspects to how some of the characters were connected to each other, those connections didn’t really seem to add anything to the story… and there was too much glossing over in the way of interactions between characters.

A lot of the book did have potential when it came to tensions between the different people regarding slavery and although some of the attitudes were completely and dangerously wrong, I felt they made a certain kind of sense for that time period. However, I couldn’t really figure out why Enoch and Seth wound up being so vehemently opposed to each other, even though neither had seemed to have a stance earlier on in the book.

I don’t think I’d read this book again, but I wouldn’t be averse to reading other books by this author in the future.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I would have easily given this book 5 stars, as it had a lot of potential for even more tension than book one. However, I’m not a fan of love triangles (or love squares, in this instance) and due to the sheer amount of eye rolling I did while reading this… I took one star off the score.

I particularly liked the fact that this book took up right where the previous one left off, though I was a bit disappointed that a lot of the training was glossed over. It was interesting to be able to learn more of the history and culture of Atlantis, along with some of the language… though I didn’t have any of the words Gwen learned stick in my mind.

The best thing about this book was, I felt, the fact that Gwen did have a particular ability… but she wasn’t an over-powered character and spent a lot of the book existing at a below average level. I also liked the fact that there was clear tension between her and Aeson and I spent most of the book waiting for them to get their acts together and do something… although the end of the book took me completely by surprise and not really in a good way.

I would have liked to see a bit more of Gwen’s brother and sister. I was kind of disappointed that she didn’t really think about them in the dangerous situations… and in many ways, I found the motivations of the secondary characters (like Logan and Aeson) to be more intriguing to read about. I liked the fact that Gwen wasn’t the centre of the world… even though I kind of had the impression she expected to be.

There was very little in the way of Gwen’s intelligence in this book… at least not as much as was shown in book one. I especially enjoyed seeing Grace and Blayne grow closer and I would have liked to see more of their relationship.

There were some really good elements of tension and mystery in this book and I did like seeing Gwen get to know other characters. And I especially liked the idea of the zero gravity dancing.

I do want to read the next two books in this series… but I will be quite disappointed if they’re like this one and Gwen continues to lose what made her an interesting character in book one.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

This was another book I really liked the sound of, but felt didn’t live up to my expectations as I read it.

I wasn’t quite sure what the main plot of the story was. I felt there was too much going on that wasn’t drawn to a conclusion and that there were too many secondary characters and side plots.

I really liked being able to see the different types of technology on the island and it was also intriguing to see something of their beliefs, even though I wasn’t sure what was myth and what was true, or even really what sort of time period the book was set in.

I would have liked some more details of how the madness worked, as there was very little detail about what caused it and why people who knew the sufferers wouldn’t recognise them.

I thought the hints of background between Belial and Kama were interesting and that was one of the few things I didn’t have any problem understanding, even though I really didn’t like the insta!love connection that formed.

I thought there was a bit too much in the way of information dumping and I would have liked to see D’vinid’s relationships with many of the other characters, such as the princes and Pan’s twin sons. I would have liked to see many of the minor characters explored a bit more.

It would have been good to see a bit more in the way of politics and how things had changed in the previous king’s rule.

I liked the use of the songs/poems in the book, though I would have liked to see more of how they fit in with D’vinid’s title. I also found it very difficult to understand why he had so much trouble with the King… and it took a long time before I got any answers.

I would have liked to see this book expanded upon a bit more and less characters to try and connect with. There was a lot that had potential here, but I did struggle to connect emotionally with the characters or really get to know what the culture was like. I’m not sure I would read the next book/s in this series, at least not unless it was a bit more focused on less characters.

(This review may contain spoilers).

Although the last book I read by this author wasn’t quite as good as it could have been, I did find this book a lot easier to read, especially since it was written in third person.

I thought the idea of the Keeper and the Seeker was a really intriguing one, though I wasn’t sure of exactly what the rituals were all supposed to be about. The hints about the ancestor spirits were interesting, but there was very little background information on the culture. I would have liked to see a bit more of the rituals before everything went wrong.

I thought it was good to see the differences in personality between Moria and Ashyn, though when they met the older Seeker and Keeper towards the end of the book, they came across as very similar to their younger counterparts.

It was also good to have the opportunity to see the two different journeys and to see that, although Ashyn and Moria were both capable and skilled, they weren’t ridiculously over-powered and they both clearly had different strengths.

There was a lot of tension in both paths, but I liked seeing the interactions between Moria and Gavril more. It was good to see them forced to work together and I felt the mutual respect between them developed easily and naturally.

I also liked being able to see the relationship between Moria and Diago and Ashyn and Tova. It was good to see the bonds between them.

I didn’t really think much of the governor, even if some of the reasoning behind his actions was understandable. I felt there should have been more reaction to what he’d done, considering the culture held the animals as sacred.

There were a lot of really creepy scenes in this book, but it did get a bit tiresome to read how literally every single character assumed Ashyn and Moria were mistaken about what had happened to their home.

The world was a really intriguing one and I cared about the characters and plot. As soon as I’m able to afford them, I intend to buy the next two books in this trilogy.